Season 7 heavyweight tourney field, full fight card set for Bellator 75 in Hammond, Ind.

The field for Bellator’s Season 7 heavyweight tournament is set – and the eight-man field may be thinking about a little more than just the $100,000 winner’s prize.

On Wednesday, news broke that Bellator’s heavyweight champ, Cole Konrad, had retired – presumably leaving the heavyweight title vacant. It is not yet known if the Season 7 tournament winner automatically will become the new champion, although that appears to be at least one option for the promotion.

Sources close to the promotion on Wednesday confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the field for the eight-man tournament, which kicks off next month at Bellator 75, as well as the event’s preliminary card. Bellator officials are expected to make the bouts official this week.

Bellator 75 takes place Oct. 5 at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. It will be the promotion’s second event of Season 7 and second visit to the venue, which is located just 20 miles from Chicago in Northwest Indiana. Main-card fights air on MTV2, while prelims will stream at Spike.com.

Headlining the main card Eric Prindle (7-2 MMA, 3-1 BFC) gets his rematch with Thiago Santos (10-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC). The two were scheduled to fight at Bellator 61, but the bout was delayed a week due a Prindle illness. At Bellator 62, Santos couldn’t make weight, and the fight was scrapped. The two first fought at Bellator 59 in the Season 5 heavyweight tournament final, which resulted in a no-contest when Santos kicked a grounded Prindle in the groin in the first round.

Former Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers (12-4 MMA, 1-0 BFC) gets his second Bellator fight after debuting with a TKO win over former training partner Kevin Asplund at Bellator 71. He meets promotional newcomer Alexander Volkov (16-3 MMA, 0-0 BFC). The 6-foot-7 Russian has won eight straight and nine of his past 10 – with eight of those coming by TKO.

Mike Wessel (12-4 MMA, 1-0 BFC), who is coming off a split-decision win over Ryan Martinez at Bellator 73, takes on Richard Hale (19-4 MMA, 4-1 BFC), who moves up from light heavyweight. Hale was a Season 4 light heavyweight tournament finalist, but lost by third-round TKO to Christian M’Pumbu.

And in the fourth tournament bout, recent UFC fighter Vinicius Queiroz (5-2 MMA, 0-0 BFC) will make his Bellator debut against Mark Holata (12-3 MMA, 3-1 BFC), who has won nine of his past 10 fights.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.